Padres trade Reymond Fuentes to the Royals for Kyle Bartsch

The San Diego Padres have traded outfielder Reymond Fuentes to the Kansas City Royals. They received pitcher Kyle Bartsch. With the 40-man roster just hours away, the Padres needed to make room for Fuentes or let him go to the Rule 5 draft, according to Corey Brock from MLB.com. The trade was announced on Thursday.

#Padres trade OF Rey Fuentes to #Royals for LHP Kyle Bartsch. Would have had to protect Fuentes. Gets him off 40-man, gets a piece back.

The Rule 5 draft aims to prevent teams from loading up too many young players on their minor league affiliate teams when other teams would be willing to have them play in the majors. It occurs at the end of the December annual general manager Winter Meeting.

Fuentes, 23, played in 23 games for the Padres last season. He slashed .152/.222/.152, however, his time was limited with the team. He did not record a home run, but has one RBI to his resume. The Royals are willing to take a chance that he will prove to be better than his short term MLB stint showed.

Bartsch has not yet pitched in the MLB to this point in his career. However, he has pitched two seasons in the Minor League Baseball. He has pitched for the Idaho Falls in 2013 and Wilmington in 2014. In two season, he has posted a 7-6 record with a 2.35 ERA over 62 games. He finished 44 of those games, earning 10 saves. In 84.1 innings pitched over two seasons, the 23-year-old struck out 89 batters. The most impressive stat is his WHIP. He earned a 0.989 WHIP in 2013, 1.036 WHIP in 2014 and a 1.020 WHIP in his entire MiLB career.